Just this past week, Journey announced the latest in a long line of replacements for the keening pipes of Steve Perry: Philippine vocalist Arnel Pineda. But what’s interesting about Pineda is that he was recruited after Journey’s guitarist saw Pineda’s band cover “Faithfully” on YouTube.

This has to be the secret fantasy of every musician in a tribute band. And you know what? Don’t stop make-believin’.

Whether you appreciate tribute bands’ cornball factor, or just really need to hear “Black Dog,” it’s hard to knock the bang-for-your-buck entertainment value of local musicians strutting their stuff as arena rockers. Now take that appeal — however ironic it may be — and double it. That’s Pittsburgh tribute band Bon-Journey.

The trouble a lot of tribute bands run into, says Bon-Journey keyboardist Jeff Kolbfleisch, is that if you have only one band’s catalog to choose from, it’s nearly impossible to play crowd favorites all night long. “You wanna keep people up, keep it light, keep it stuff that everyone can sing along with and have a good time,” Kolbfleisch says. But “unless you start getting into a lot of off-the-cuff album cuts and music that people really don’t know, it’s pretty impossible.”

But if you play the greatest hits of two chart-topping bands? Problem solved.

Bon-Journey’s scarab first soared in the summer of 2006, rising from the ashes of a local Journey tribute band. Kolbfleisch says that branching out to include Bon Jovi — “the counterpoint to Journey in a lot of ways” — was a natural progression. He points out similarities between Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'” and Bon Jovi’s “In These Arms” — songs Bon-Journey occasionally blends together on stage.

The band’s name, in fact, was partly Steve Perry’s idea.

Kolbfleisch was reading an interview with the Journey vocalist, who “basically hates Bon Jovi,” says Kolbfleisch. “He was just going on saying, ‘Everything they do, they steal from us, they try to do our vocals and our song arrangements — they might as well just call themselves “Bon Journey.”‘ So I was like, ‘Well … ‘”

The band currently includes vocalist Tony DiCesaro, Monroeville-based drummer Ned Lyden and, from Fayette County, guitarist Rich Kendall and bassist Jerry Talbott. Kolbfleisch, also originally from Fayette County, now lives in Brookline and manages the band’s booking and Web presence.

Just don’t call Bon-Journey a cover band. “A lot of cover bands simply are concerned with getting the essence of a song — they’ll roughly learn it,” says Kolbfleisch. “A tribute band, a lot more time goes into getting the proper vocal parts, the instrumentation, the arrangements of some of these songs.”

But although DiCesaro has the requisite high emotive voice for this material, Bon-Journey’s members don’t look particularly like rock stars. And that, they say, is partly the point.

Capturing the look of the original is a major element of most tribute shows: You really gotta be Axl to sing for a G n’ R tribute. But can you even really mentally picture what, say, Bon Jovi’s bassist looks like?

“If you look at both [Bon Jovi and Journey] right now, they’re showing up onstage in jeans and T-shirts,” Kolbfleisch says. “They were all pretty much almost invisible musicians. Of course you have Steve Perry in the tailcoat, and some of the really awful things he wore, but there wasn’t really an identifiable look, like you have with Guns N’ Roses or Zeppelin.”

Even without elaborate costumery, Bon-Journey is booked every Friday and Saturday night from here to infinity — or at least, its Web site shows the band heavily booked until 2009. Just in the past six months, the band has hit Connecticut, New Jersey, Ohio, Maryland, West Virginia and North Carolina. A casino in Florida even tried to book them as an opener … for Bon Jovi.

That’s a lot of extra hours for guys who already work full time. DiCesaro is a chiropractor, for example; Kolbfleisch is a paralegal. “It’s a great way to have a release on the weekend, and relax,” says Kolbfleisch.

“Granted, it’s not something I woke up and aspired to do.”

This article appears in Dec 13-19, 2007.

E-mail Aaron Jentzen about this story

7 replies on “Best tribute band”

  2. This band is absolutely the best cover band I’ve ever seen. I happened upon them when going to a sports bar I was interested in possibly purchasing and was there to check out what type of crowds they drew from there live entertainment. When I walked in it was standing room only. I mean you was lucky to find somewhere to stand. It was packed shoulder to shoulder. When the band came on I had worked my way up closer to the stage. After only two Journey songs I could not believe how good this band was. Tony the lead singer was incredible. If I closed my eyes I would have thought I was listening to Steve Perry live. I did not know there name so I asked the woman standing next to me if she knew the name of the band and come to find out she was Tony the lead singers girlfriend. During the bands break she introduced me to Tony and Jeff. I have went back to see them 3 times and they are addicting. The best part is that the crowds they draw range in age from 21 to 60. Its amazing what stage presence and carma that Tony has with the crowd and the band is full of talented musicians. If you are a owner of a club this is a band you will want to book on a regular basis. They will pack your place every time guaranteed.

  3. You are right! One thing is that TONY the singer and RICH the guitarist are no longer with the other group. They are starting their own tribute to Bon Jovi and Journey…if you would like to continue to see them please go to: http://www.myspace.com/bon_journey amd see where they are playing…keep in mind that the other Bon Journey is still out there. Thanks for your comments and support!

  4. Tony is Bon Journey. No need to waste your time and money going to see the other “original” version. The other guys have burned bridges with almost every musican bar owner in the area tring to make the RT version of Bon journey look like idiots. Well my money says go where the talent is and that is RT’s Bon Journey. At least they play the songs right.

  5. Bon Journey is pretty decent and what they do is pretty neat. Please remember that, even though most younger people do not know the popularity of bands such as Journey, they have a glaring need to unify in the common belief that ,Journey is a band they hate, musicians in particular. Most younger audiences only see the oldest video clips where Steve Perry is in skin tight spandex, and he sings so high he sounds a lot like a girl. The facts are that their rock ballads have become modern classics and many versions are played endlessly by many artists. Journey and Bon jovi have the largest audiences in history, next only to woodstock, or the Stones. Bon Jovi still looks amazing and the young girls are accepting of their music as a result of their continued presence in the rock scene. Bon Journey should be given KUDOS for their talents and creative endeavors. Take note that Journey had Neil Shon, one of the most talented Rock guitarists in the world. At the age of 16 he dropped out of school to tour with Santana, at Santana’s request. Now, that is talent. They also had Steve perry who had, and still has one of the most distinctive, controlled vocals of all time. As good as the imitations are, they are not him. His style is unmistakenly original, and as you can see, they have never had another big hit song without him singing, and they still tour and put out albums. And as he aged, his voice became even richer with head voice tonal quality. Any band that attempts their music, deserves great credit, it is difficult to perform, and this takes me to the fact that younger musicians hate the music, because it is next to impossible for them to do it well. Where are the Queen tribute bands, or Styx, or Boston. All of these bands have outrageously high tenor and alto singers. People seem to complain that these guys look old on stage. Who cares. If it is about the music then enjoy it. If it is about the image go to see the Jonas Brothers. Has anyone noticed Mick jagger has looked 65 for the last 20 years. The reason you will not find younger players tributing older bands like Journey, Bon Jovi, etc. Is because they lack the musical talent to pull it off well. it is all about Instant Gratification. “Where are all my groupies and Booze and Alcohol, and “Oh Dude that Van Halen Riff sucks let’s do our own riffs”. Yes I work in a well known Pittsburgh based studio and speak from experience. Tribute bands are about the Tribute, they are dedicated to honoring the artists who brought us the music we enjoyed. Very few bands have the talent to even perform their own music live. That is why everyone is lipsyncing today. Lighten up and enjoy the shows!!!

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